Saoirse Brady

We really welcome this proposal, David.

I suppose, you know, for very many decades now, we've seen that criminalising people and individuals for using drugs

drugs for personal possession has not worked.

We look at this in terms of people being ensnared in a criminal justice system that just cannot meet their needs.

And we really welcome the fact that the committee's report actually recognises that drug use, addiction, poverty, trauma and exclusion cannot be effectively dealt with in the criminal justice system.

And I suppose if we're thinking about it, you know,

Matthew's mentioned there that having a provision in law deters people from using drugs.

Actually, the committee does address that issue.

It says that decriminalising people, and we are talking about decriminalising people and not drugs here.

are not likely to result in increased consumption.

And where they think it might have, he's referred to examples there, they've put in place measures to kind of suggest how you could deal with that in the same way that we deal with alcohol.

And I suppose that public consumption of drugs can be better dealt with by having consumption rooms.

And we were really pleased to see Merchants Quay Ireland have their licence renewed for the safe injection facility.

And again, the committee looks at that and talks about actually

having safe consumption rooms for drugs other than those that you inject.

But what this all comes down to, I don't disagree with Matthew that we need to educate people.

And IPRT is a member of the Irish Coalition for Drug Reform.

One of the key things that we want to do, and we really welcome this report because it isn't just making a recommendation in isolation around decriminalising drugs.

drugs for personal possession.

It's talking about all the prevention measures that go around that.